Herpetofaunal Community Structure and Habitat Associations in Gunung Ciremai National Park, West Java, Indonesia

BIODIVERSITAS ISSN: 1412-033X (printed edition) Volume 12, Number 1, January 2011 ISSN: 2085-4722 (electronic) Pages: 38-44 DOI: 10.13057/biodiv/d120108 Herpetofaunal community structure and habitat associations in Gunung Ciremai National Park, West Java, Indonesia AWAL RIYANTO♥ Zoology Division, Research Center for Biology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Widyasatwaloka Building, Jl. Raya Jakarta-Bogor Km. 46, Cibinong, West Java, Indonesia. Tel.: 021-8765056 Fax.: 021-8765068 email: [email protected] Manuscript received: 1 March 2010. Revision accepted: 2 August 2010. ABSTRACT Riyanto A (2011) Herpetofaunal community structure and habitat associations in Gunung Ciremai National Park, West Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 12: 38-44. Community structure and habitat associations of amphibians and reptiles on both rainy and dry seasons of six habitat types of three sites in Gunung Ciremai National Park, West Java were investigated in March and October 2008. The data of herpetofauna was obtained by opportunistic searches. Herpetofaunal diversity for each habitat was determined by using Shannon Wiener index, the species abundance per unit area was calculated by using Margalef’s index, and the homogeneity of distribution of species in relation to other species in a sampled per unit area was evaluated using Evenness index. The similarity in herpetofauna communities among habitat types was determined using Sorensen’s coefficient, meanwhile the Jaccard’s index was used to estimate similarities in habitat utilization. Thus, both community similarities and habitat utilization displayed in cluster dendrogram. A total of 46 amphibian and reptile taxa were recorded, comprising 16 anurans, 22 lizards and 8 snakes. Of the total taxa, four anurans are endemic and unusual specimens probably new in sciences referred to the genus Cyrtodactylus and Eutropis. There were differed in sequential of biological indices among habitat types but not much different in their values. The result of cluster analysis showed different patterns on the community similarity among habitat type and habitat utilization during rainy and dry seasons. Key words: community, habitat utilization, amphibians, reptiles, Gunung Ciremai, Indonesia. INTRODUCTION diversity and abundance are needed and essential for planning effective conservation and resource management Mount Ciremai is the highest (3,078 m above sea level) strategies (Das 1997). Furthermore, documentation of the mountain in West Java and is one of the most important biodiversity of this area would enable better understanding assets for Kuningan and Majalengka Districts. The of its community organization and the impact of mountain has extensive natural resources including rich disturbance processes. The only available data on diversity agricultural land and a natural, spring-fed water supply. of herpetofauna come from the recent study of Riyanto However, the extinctions of forest dependent amphibians (2007, 2008a, b). and reptiles due to forest loss and degradation as well as This study intends to promote future conservation the isolation of once continuous populations are serious efforts in this area by providing biodiversity and ecological problems. Along with decree of the Ministry of Forestry data on the herpetofauna. The aimed of this study is to No.424/Menhut-II/2004, the area of approximately 15,500 investigate structure community and habitat associations of ha on mount Ciremai should be set aside as a national park. different species on rainy and dry seasons in Gunung However, very few data are available regarding the biota of Ciremai National Park, West Java, Indonesia. this region. Herpetofauna is not an exception despite the fact that amphibians and reptiles form an important part of the ecosystem as significant predators on invertebrates as MATERIALS AND METHODS well as smaller vertebrates, and are themselves important food items for birds and mammals (Howell 2002). Study area. Gunung Ciremai National Park is located Knowledge of biodiversity and organization of its in West Java and a proximally 200 km southeast of Jakarta communities is essential for the development of with altitude between 500 and 3,078 above sea level. conservation policies and a sustainable environmental Annually rain fall in this area is 2,000 to 4,500 mm. The management system. Given the limited conservation survey were focused on three sites, they are Palutungan, resources, such knowledge provides the basis for Linggarjati and Seda, Kuningan District, West Java (Figure 1). identifying important areas to be conserved and threats that Palutungan site is southern part of mount Ciremai and needs to be mitigated. This may only be achieved if sound begin from 1,400 m in elevation. The habitat types of this knowledge exists of systematic, taxon distributions and site are included agro-ecosystem, shrub-old pine forest, habitat associations (Gillespie et al. 2005). The data of their secondary and primary forest. Linggarjati site is eastern RIYANTO – Herpetofauna in Gunung Ciremai National Park 39 rocky substrate. Shrub-old pine forest was defined as old pine forest with full shrub, historically this habitat is pine plantation in the long time ago. Secondary forest was defined as regenerating forest historically cleared for coffee and pine plantation, 3 the canopy was semi covered. The secondary forest habitat also included a small stream with rocky substrate. Primary forest in this study included the forest area with canopy height 20 up to 50 m, full cover canopy and these areas have variety gentle ground 2 and also included small stream with rocky substrate. Field sampling. The surveys were conducted in March and October 2008. The March sampling period was represented rainy season, meanwhile the October sampling period was represented dry season. 1 All habitat types in every survey sites were surveyed by active opportunistic searches twice both of during days or during nights. The active opportunistic search is the researcher Figure 1. Map showing position of the study sites of (1) Palutungan, (2) Linggarjati and active looking for the herpetofauna on (iii) Seda at Gunung Ciremai National Park and around. all microhabitats such as under logs, debris, rocks etc. Night census was part on the mount and begin from 600 m in elevation with undertaken by four people wearing headlamp, slowly habitat type included agro-ecosystem, pine forest, walking across an area of broadly consistent habitat type secondary and primary forest. Meanwhile, Seda site is a with time duration. The time searching was consistently lowland area with elevation about 550 m asl., two habitat applied seven hours for day censuses and three hours for types was identified from this area, they are agro- night censuses. ecosystem and primary lowland forest. The lowland forest Species identification. The following literature was in Seda has been holy by the local society so this forest was consulted for identification, taxonomy and nomenclature protected and in good condition, composing by big trees. Rooij (1915, 1917), Brongersma (1942), Musters (1983), Canopy cover was classified into three categories based Manthey and Grossmann (1997), Stuebing and Inger on qualitative description: full cover, semi cover and open. (1999), Iskandar and Colijn (2000, 2001) and Mausfeld et A location were note as full cover if the canopy is dense al. (2002) for reptiles; and van Kampen (1923), Inger and enough to shade out the majority (>50%) of sunlight. Semi Stuebing (1989), Iskandar (1998, 2004), Manthey and cover was noted if the canopy broken where the sunlight Grossmann (1997) and Frost et al. (2006) for amphibians. penetrated to the forest floor, and open was noted if no Data analysis. All data collected was separated in wet canopy existed at all. The habitat were classified into six and dry periods to analysis. The species diversity for each types: (i) agro-ecosystem in low elevation (AE 1), 600-900 habitat was determined by using the Shannon Wiener Index m asl.; (ii) agro-ecosystem in high elevation (AE 2), 1100- (H’). The higher value of H’, the greater the diversity and 1500 m asl.; (iii) lowland forest (LF), 550-600 m asl.; (iv) supposedly the cleaner the environment (Ludwig and shrub-old pine forest (SOP); 1500-1600 m asl., (v) Reynolds 1988; Metcalfe 1989). secondary forest (SF), 1600-1700 m asl.; and (vi) primary forest (PF), 1700-2000 m asl. Agro-ecosystem included all H’ =-Σ [ (ni / N ) ln (ni / N ) ] areas under cultivation outside of villages but in the border of national park, including plantations (cabbages, potato, H’ = Shannon -Wiener index onions, banana, coffee and durian) and crop (young pine). N = Total individuals of population sampled Majority the canopies were open, except at durian and ni = Total individuals belonging to the i spesiec coffee plantations were semi covered. The agro-ecosystem habitat especially in Palutungan site includes a small water Richness Index that has been used was Margalef’s fall as a micro habitat (the water fall is named Curug Index (R). This index indicates the number of species in a Ciputri). Lowland forest was defined as forest area with sample or the abundance of the species per unit area canopy height 20 up to 30 m with large diameter up to 2.5 (Ludwig and Reynolds 1988; Metcalfe 1989). m, classified as full cover; include a small stream with 40 BIODIVERSITAS 12 (1): 38-44, January 2011 R = S -1 / ln (N) leucomystax), three lizards (Dasia olivacea, Draco volans and Eutropis sp.A), and four snakes (Ahaetulla prasina, R = Margalef richness index Dendrelaphis pictus, Oligodon bitorquatus and S = Total of species Xenodermus javanicus). Meanwhile, only one species was N = Total of individuals sampled restricted to high land agro-ecosystem (H. masonii). Six species were restricted to both of low and high land agro- Homogeneity or pattern of distribution of species in ecosystem consisted by three anurans (Duttaphrynus relation to other species in a sampled per unit area was melanostictus, Phrynoidis aspera and Rhacophorus calculated using Evenness Index (E) (Southwood 1971). reinwardtii) and three lizards (Cosymbotus platyurus, Gehyra mutilata and Eutropis multifasciata).

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